It Was Bittersweet
by si ms. directress
Summary: "You're a mess, I confess, I despise you in the best kind of way." - c.j.g \\ Max/oc \\ Two different people and two different lives. It was surely bittersweet.
1. 1: Lydia

**He **had first seen her in the hallway.

He remembered it since he stepped in the halls of Hiddenville High. Harsh lighting, monotonous rows of lockers, it was a type of school new, goody-two-shoed students should fear. But not him. Max _loved_ it. Walking on the blue tiles that creaked after every few seconds, he passed through the doors with his obnoxious demeanor; His hair fixed to his liking, the leather jacket that made him look superior, and his swagger was all he needed to stand out from his sister, who trailed after his large strides.

It was a Wednesday when their parents completed their unpacking, thus forcing them to get off their asses and go to school. It wasn't a problem to Phoebe. She was all ready and collected and _perfect. _Max despised her for that. He also abhorred her for being all smiles and mortifying him throughout their walk in the hallway.

As the vice-president steered their two arms to each of their lockers, Max Thunderman never felt more envious by his sister when a bottle blond bimbo approached Phoebe with a wide grin. In a duration of five minutes, they were the best of friends. Curse his sister for being the nice one. Craning his neck back inside his locker, he pulled a sigh. Was he destined to spend his high school as lonely as he did in his old town? Was he _that _unfriendly? In his whole life of fifteen years, he never had a friend. If his sister Phoebe would ever find out, he would be teased to shreds by her, even _if _his sister was the nice one.

Whatever. They were in a new town now. No one knew about his powers, so at least no one saw him, or his sister, as the freaks. He should at least get some friends to talk to; or maybe, a girl friend.

Placing a smirk on his face, he shut his locker with a slam.

Leaning his right shoulder against his grey locker, his brown eyes observed the scene before him as the bell rang. Stereotypical students crossed the tiles with their friends, laughing along the way. The 'populars' hung out with their big hair and loud laughs, but they didn't seem attractive or in the lines of mesmerizing. They were simply normal people; and quite friendly, it seemed. The 'nerds' closed in a single group as they shuffled by the populous group of 'populars'; other than that, several students walked in the background, running to their class after the bell rung.

Oh shit, the bell.

At that moment, he was suddenly aware of the absence of the bottle blond and his sister initially adjacent to him. He assumed they went to class. His eyes widen and soon, he ran around the corner for his first class.

Ultimately, it wasn't his fault for smacking into a lithe physique; but he was thankful to the world that he had no capability of super strength, unlike his father.

"Oh, my cookies! I'm terribly sorry." Her words dripped with sugar and sweetness, making him cringe in annoyance. Ugh, the girl sounded like her ever-so perturbing sister. It wasn't that he hated her; it was the just the way she apologized

As his gaze landed on the girl, he wanted to hate her even more. A silky, sheet of long auburn princess hair crowned the top of her heart-shaped face that held proportional features of a beautiful lady. The kind and gentle eyes with the color of the noon sky above the Californian waters matched her saccharine smile. It did not help him when his nose was engulfed with her scent of Vanilla cupcakes. Judging by her flawless skin, perfect posture, and her tower of books, he knew that this one was those good, optimistic peppy girls who could do no wrong.

In one second, her books of all sorts landed on the school tiles with a strong blow. The sudden movement made Max flinch. He then weighed his options: should he help her collect her books or should he leave? He had a heart, but not for those who acted _oh-so _sweet and cute and _perfect._ She looked like a flawless, ample-breasted irked him so, so _much. _

Rolling his eyes, he left the _princess_ and her books; with her memory and their collision which haunted his mind for the whole day.

* * *

It was not factual that Max Thunderman forgotten her the next day, because he did not.

The next morning, he awoke with her beautiful face tainting his mind. He couldn't believe his luck. As soon as he fixed himself up and forced on a grey hoodie, his pet rabbit began questioning him if he was okay. Physically, he was. Mentally? Not so much.

Ok, he was exaggerating. He wasn't losing his mind; it was just the fault of that beautiful girl why he couldn't concentrate on crafting his rockets. It was also the fault of that girl why his evil pet rabbit was wondering about his health.

And then it happened. He was merely and modestly eating his heavenly breakfast of cereal when his mother wondered about him too.

"Max, are you okay? You seem so quiet." His mother stated with a confused look on her face as she set up some cups on the table. He picked his silver spoon from the bowl of milk and Froot Loops and rolled his eyes.

"I'm fine." He uttered, but the thin line of silence still hung upon his face. How could he say that he was fine, seeing that he couldn't even seem to finish his breakfast? He should hate himself. How can he let a girl whirl his mind? It was so… unconventional. It made him so weird (well, mentally).

* * *

At seven o' clock sharp, his brain suddenly went into freeze mode when s_he _stood by Phoebe, the bottle blond, and most importantly _him. _

"Good morning, Phoebe," The princess skipped past them with enthusiasm, "Good morning, Cherry." Today, she wore a knee-length floral dress, which made most of the girls envy-glare at her and the boys lusciously stare after her. The 15-year-old aspiring villain fought all urges to gawk at her small and dainty figure.

"Good morning, _Lydia_?" Phoebe and the bottle blond, which apparently had the name of a fruit, chorused in surprise. Ah, so the princess' name was Lydia.

Abruptly, her turquoise eyes locked on his.

And then it was gone. The princess skipped past them with a heartbeat.

"Oh, my god. Did you see what she wore? It was perfect on her! She's so- ugh, I wish I was her. She looks good on everything!" Cherry babbled with expression. The envy was apparent on her tanned face. Before Phoebe could utter anything admirable about the real-life princess that just graced her presence before them, Max rolled his eyes and talked loudly. "She looks like a fucking princess. It's crap."

The two ladies snapped their necks to look at him, quite surprise to hear his negative input on Lydia. Phoebe smiled uneasily at him. "Max, that's not very nice. You're talking about the school council president here."

"Oh please, I can say what I want."

For some bizarre, unknown reason, she began talking to him two days later.

It was just right after his school crush, Tara Campbell, had stolen his sandwich right before his glazed eyes when he heard lithe patter of feet clacking towards them.

The Tara, the blond bad girl, twisted her neck for a millisecond to see who it was. And when she did, she rolled her eyes.

"Watch out for _Miss Princess_, she's a _pain_ in the-"

"Good morning, Tara." Lydia and her small stature chirped with glee. She then resumed facing Max. "Good morning, Max."

He quite surprised to hear his name uttered from her lips, seeing they had never talked before. "Uh, good morning?" He replied in confusion.

Tara, on the other hand, had fled to another hall to steal some other kid's sandwich.

Shifting his foot, his face turned directly downwards towards the flawless lady. Why did she want to talk to him? Had she found out he was the one who spilled cheese and chocolate on Phoebe on picture day? That he was the one who placed worms in the principal's broth? Or both? If so, his legs were ultimately ready to dash to the other way. She was, after all, the school council president.

"From your curricular activities and teachers, I have noticed something positively astounding from you. Is the computer your forte?" Curse her for having a wide vocabulary and a faultless grammar.

"Uh, yeah?"

"Perfect!" She chirped once again, bringing her fingers together to form a prayer motion. "Because, I'm actually on the computer team focused on doing the school website and one of my mates bailed on me for the week, and I'm thinking maybe someone else could help me so I thought of you and your aspiring intellect on computers. So what do you think?"

He stared at her. What did she think he was, some kid that could do her work just because she couldn't do it herself for the week? Yeah, she was pretty and yes, she was sweet; but she wasn't Max's type. He usually liked girls with spunk; kind of like Tara Campbell. No, he didn't like Lydia. He knew he never would. She was just too _innocent_ and _gentle_ and _fragile_. Max would never be able to swoop that low. They were plain opposites.

But somehow, he said yes.

* * *

**Hello, thank you so much for reading my new story. I just love Max Thunderman. Please review on what you think and if I should continue! **

**Ms. Bunny x**


	2. 2: Dinner Party Aftermath

**He **wasn't really much interested in dinner parties anyway.

Slinking through the halls of Hiddenville high, he couldn't help but smirk as he thought of what had occurred the night before. His little school boy crush, also known as Tara Campbell, had asked him to call him; even though he didn't have her number which was a shame. As he ran his fingers through his brown hair that previously fixed, he swaggered to his locker. After he completed on gaining access to his space and retrieving his books for the first and second period, he closed the metal door with a slam.

He then heard the infamous squeals of Phoebe's fruit what's-her-name friend a distance away. Looking down at his smart phone's crystal clear screen, the small digits told him that it was still okay to annoy his sister before the bell rung. He slipped it back in his jean pocket and walked by casually to the two female figures that took the middle space of the school lobby to stare at Phoebe's boy crush. Oh, my god; couldn't they get more obvious.

"Hello, sister. Hello, Cheska."

"It's Cherry, actually." Oh right, fruit.

"Whatever."

"Can you see that flawless mess of hair?" Phoebe turned to both of them with an allured grin, proving to ignore the conversation that passed by her brother and her best friend. Max's eyes landed on the tall, _normal _boy that was currently having trouble in placing his books in his narrow locker (and which had also walked in their house for a dinner party just the night before).

As he eyed the boy, he couldn't see the similarity between his sandwich-thieving crush and the Phoebe's boy toy. Nope. Nuh-uh.

"Well, I must be going," Max started to say, rolling his eyes when he saw that the two girls weren't listening. "Okay then…"

As he turned, a sudden yank surprised him a bit. But he then rolled his eyes (twice in the morning, yay!) when the famous crowning glory of Lydia Verona was in his gaze. He didn't know what happened yet he let the girl control him and lead him to her locker. Her warmth sent a sharp, staccato lightning down his spine. Stopping, she twisted to access her locker.

He took his time in eyeing the girl in front of him, wondering why the world would make an annoying little thing have a beautiful exterior. It was totally unfair, actually. Everything about her was annoying and he never even had a five minute conversation with her (excluding the time that she asked him the computer favour)! The pretty bow that tied Lydia's hair up high, the small dress that hugged her ever so gracefully, the dainty steps that made her look oh-so innocent, and the way she moved alluringly was so, _so _aggravating he couldn't help despise her in the loveliest possible way. It was _bittersweet._

It was seven o'clock when she finally showed up.

Max blamed himself the whole time he walked home. Oh, my god. He was so stupid. Why did he agree to the computer-website thing at his home? His parents would surely burn to him to crisps. He wouldn't want to tell Phoebe because he knew that she would go fan-girl mode over the matter. It just so happened that Max's sister strongly admired the auburn-haired, five-foot one lady genius.

But he didn't expect Phoebe to invite her own non-supe visitor, especially Cherry (he finally learned her fruit name). He was about to tell the news of his own when their parents announced that they were going on a date, which had the right timing.

So, he decided to wait in his lair while he arranged all his stuff to make his room look at least presentable.

Dr. Collaso had amusingly watched the boy run around his room, wondering why a human being would be so worried about a girl's view on a bed room. It was preposterous. Oh, how a young boy's mind work these days.

When the bell rang, he immediately ran up the stairs to catch the door before Phoebe could open it herself. However, it was too late. Phoebe and Cherry was already standing in front of an open door with their open mouths.

He walked nonchalantly to the door. "Hey, Lydia." He tried to smile but it ended up as a smirk, as per usual.

"Um, Max. Why is Lydia here?" Phoebe broke the awkward silence. Geez, why was everyone so stiff because Lydia here? Maybe it was because Lydia looked so superior over everyone even though she was just an innocent five-footer. Max rolled his eyes at the thought.

"We got a thing to do."

"We're doing a thing for the school website." Lydia answered flawless, smiling small then peering over at Max. She was standing outside the door very awkwardly but her words sounded confident, like she doing a speech.

Max then sighed; Time to save her.

"Okay, we got lotsa things to do so let's go, Lydia. Ok, bye." In one swift motion, he led her to his lair.

Her dancing eyes peered around the room while it was Max's turn to stand awkwardly.

When she saw his under-construction Max 2 rocket that hung above a steel mantle, he thought she was going to be shocked or at least surprised; but instead, she uttered small. "Cute."

Wow; Tough crowd.

"I never thought you would be a type of guy that could execute nanotechnology," she spoke after a minute of scoping out his room. Smirking, he replied and opened up his computer. "Well, you don't know me."

The next she said made him froze. "Well, I like you Max Thunderman."

"Uh, t-thanks." He blinked and stopped his left fingers from moving uneasily. His heart kind of stopped, but his mind had another thing going on. _Well, I don't like you._

But Lydia was not done. "Yeah, you're cool."

She couldn't feel the obstinate tension that had strung up in his room, so Max spoke. "Um, let's start."

She thanked him for some reason.

"Why are you thanking me?" Max echoed while his fingers still continued on doing the website work that Lydia assigned him to do. They were still in the room, but it was nearing nine and Lydia almost had to go home. Swinging her legs on top of the chair that sat beside the fifteen-year-old aspiring super villain, she continued nonchalantly. "You know, for the thing upstairs."

Max stopped and looked at her in her swirl of blue eyes. The innocence was still there but there nothing in her eyes. No emotions, it was empty pit of emotionless matters and entities; he wondered why.

Straying from his thoughts, he recollected what had happened two hours ago. All he did was took her down in his lair.

She placed a stray lock of her soft hair around her ear, a normal thing for girls to do Max guessed. "Um, well, you saved me from social awkwardness and humiliation."

"Oh."

"Well, I don't really hang with girls that much… so, I was kind of scared to humiliate myself in front of Phoebe and Cherry." She explained softly, while Max could hear his pet rabbit lightly snoring from his blanket-covered cage. Wow. She was making a terribly big deal over an ultimately small matter. Is this what perfect girls like her become insecure about? Social awkwardness and humiliation? Wow, that was a long thing, why don't you just call it social suicide. Geez.

"I guess I'm just not comfortable with girls my age because all they care about is boys and boys."

Max rolled his eyes; he wasn't in the mood to listen to Lydia's biggest secrets.

However, he still stopped and took the time to hang on. It resulted them from talking about every problem in the world. Math projects, rockets, carrot-eating bunnies and all. They laughed, they talked, they smirked.

At the moment he said goodbye after she walked out, he concluded that Lydia was the still the most annoying thing that ever walked in his world… but, she's cool. Sometimes.

What can he say? It was _bittersweet_.


	3. 3: The Faux Exterior

**AU AT THE BOTTOM**

* * *

**It's only **the eleventh time they hung out when he thought she wasn't annoying anymore.

It happened approximately six point five minutes, the millisecond his elbow accidentally knocked her bowl of salad down the lunch room floor, and the ranging minute she adorably giggled at him.

Maybe it was his bad luck, or fate that he didn't eye her anymore like she was a squished bug (a pretty squished bug, that is) that stuck on his penultimate favoured sneakers. Over the eleven times they hung out together when he realized, _hey Lydia isn't annoying as much as she used to be._

But then he thought why _was _she annoying? He couldn't remember why. Maybe it had something to do with perfect exterior that Max wanted more than anything in the world.

For some reason, he usually liked the feeling of walking side by side the with the perfect five-footer genius. He spent so much time with Lydia that his feelings for Tara Campbell had deteriorated like it wasn't even there at the first place. Well, it wasn't really nice to like a sandwich-thieving lady anyway; even though said lady would be most-voted as most-likely to be a female villain in disguise, also known as Max Thunderman's type of girl.

He liked being with Lydia because she was sweet and innocent, a type he was slowly gravitating towards to.

He thought his feelings for Lydia Verona was quite clandestine and well-kept under his mind until one morning when his mother questioned if Lydia was his girlfriend.

The large amount of liquid he was going to swallow down his esophagus was then showered over Phoebe's hair. Oops.

"Sorry, Phoebs." Max smirked, but under that façade he was secretly mortified and was hoping that his mom wouldn't bring up the matter of Lydia being his girlfriend.

"Who has what?" Billy and Nora came in the kitchen clambering over the last piece of waffle that situated in the middle of the table. Like any normal morning, Nora won. Max's dad ignored both of his squabbling younger kids and read the sports section on the newspaper.

"_You _have a girlfriend?" Phoebe raised her eyebrows in disbelief with a twist in amusement. "Like that would ever happen. You're too evil to even have one." She then pointed towards her dripping head in irritation.

"Excuse me, I'm too busy for relationships. I'm currently doing everything I can to get to Villain U when I'm older while you fawn over Cole Campbell."

"At least I have a lif-"

"_Phoebe_, wash your hair e so I can get you both to school on time."

"Good morning, Max," Lydia greeted him with a smile.

He let a small smile slip from his feelings and then faced his locker. When he heard the small patter of feet fading from his hearing, he let out a sigh of relief and banged his forehead on the metal surface. Goodness. One day he was hating her from the moon and back and now he had trouble in continuing a conversation with her.

"So, _Lydia Verona_?"

"Oh, _fu_- Oh, Phoebe. You shocked me." Phoebe blinked. Well that was a first.

Before Phoebe could say anything else about Max's secret crush, aka Lydia Verona, he fled from the scene.

He was carrying her books when it happened.

"Why do you have so many math books?" He wondered out loud, after his eyes kept looking at the covers of the text books he was currently holding. His eyes then continued facing the back of Lydia's head. Under the fluorescent lighting, it looked almost angelic.

"I'm joining the Math Bowl," she said simply with her innocent voice. Her dancing eyes flickered towards his own ones. Even though she was containing her emotions under her wraps, Max knew that she was excited for it. He could read voices easily.

"Really? That's nice. Who are your teammates?"

"I don't know yet because I'm still deciding between Allison from Honours Lit or Keith from Home Ec. They're both pretty good at Geometry and Trinomials. I'm thinking Sarah too but she's currently absent from some accident when she somehow fell down the stairs. She said it felt like someone was using telekinesis on her, I think. Anyway…"

She was babbling. And it was so. Effing. Cute.

"Oh, I forgot you're a nerd." He spoke unintentionally.

She paused and snapped her head towards him. "Excuse meee?" She screeched in a soft way.

"You're excused." Well, there goes his true colors.

The expanse never felt so awkward to Max Thunderman. It wasn't a nice thing to feel.

"Uh, where you want your books?" He questioned softly as they reached Lydia's next classroom.

"Just give it to me." She clipped. Her hands quickly retrieved the books from Max with a glare. "And by the way, I'm _not _a nerd. I'm just intelligent, unlike _some _people."

Ouch.

Okay. That really hurt.

Holding his insulted face with his left palm (as if he was physically slapped), he walked home with faux indifference. Phoebe wouldn't notice a thing anyway. He moped through the way home as his right backpack strap lay motionlessly hanging from his shoulder like it was on a broken cliff.

"We're home!" The pair of fraternal twins hollered once they reached the door. Max immediately went into his lair, not sparing a glance to anyone.

To kick his feelings away, he poured himself a cup of steaming coffee and worked on his rocket.

The creation of his Max 1 rocket was working completely and was doing well to eradicate the memory of the heart-crushing, eye-cringing incident that occurred hours ago—until Phoebe butted her butt in.

"Max! Stop that racket. I'm trying to study here!" She came in like a thunderstorm, tossing the door open. Her left arm cradled a thick math text book—metaphorically the same as Lydia Verona's.

Well.

"For what?!" Max exclaimed, but knowing fully well what she was studying for.

"The Math Bowl!" He knew it.

"Whut. The Math Bowl? Is it the place where people go for social suicide?"

* * *

**NO I DID NOT STEAL THIS STORY FROM MS. WUBBIT ON QUOTEV, OKAY? HOW CAN I PROVE IT TO EVERYONE WHO PMED ME HATE? WELL, I _AM_ MS. WUBBIT. geez. before you people could start to say I stole this story from a Wattpad account under the name of ThatGreyBunny17, well sucks because that's also me. **


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